DENVER, CO--NOVEMBER 19TH 2010--Mullen High School head coach, Dave Logan, has a few words for a ref during the quarter final Colorado State playoff game against Chaparral High School Friday evening at Mullen. Mullen won 35-7. Andy Cross, The Denver Post

The surprise firing of longtime Mullen head football coach Dave Logan sparked a backlash from supporters Thursday, a day after the removal of one of the most successful prep coaches in state history. The anger stemmed not only from the surprise, but the vague reasons Mullen offered.

On Thursday, Mullen president and chief executive officer Ryan Clement expounded on why Logan was fired, saying the popular talk show host and longtime Broncos announcer had become the face of the school and that’s not what the new administration wanted, especially from someone who didn’t work at the school full time.

“In the case of Coach Logan, he had a greater celebrity outside, which was even magnified more,” Clement said. “The analysis of the impact on our culture is magnified by how the head football coach engages within the school. For that position, we felt we needed to have (the coach) be full-time faculty.

“If our greatest asset is our football coach, who’s not here very often, you can see it’s not who we’ve been.”

It was also learned, however, that Logan turned down requests from Mullen administrators to replace three assistants before last season with full-time faculty, including Clement.

As for Mullen’s desire to have full-time faculty serve as coaches, Clement acknowledged that a small percentage of the approximately 100 coaches of boys and girls teams at Mullen are full time.

“Sadly, we have about 10 percent in the building,” Clement said. said. “What’s difficult, in that in a perfect world, we’d like to have a significantly higher number in the building, especially in football, where it’s ingrained.”

Logan, an accomplished athlete, coach and broadcaster, had become the name most associated with Mullen.

“People are angry that we got rid of our biggest asset and they think it’s horrible,” said Clement, who met with parents on Thursday to explain the decision.

Logan, who was 110-12 at Mullen in nine years with four state titles, declined comment Thursday, saying only he “wanted to move on.” On his afternoon radio show on 850 KOA-AM, he deflected a number of well-wishers who telephoned, instead focusing on other sports-related topics.

But sources confirmed that trouble started before last season, when Mullen administrators wanted as many as three in-building assistants on Logan’s staff, including Clement as a possible quarterbacks coach. Logan would only allow that change is “their prerogative.” Clement is a former all-state quarterback.

New Mullen principal Jim Gmelich, who came to the school last year from Regis Jesuit, has refused to comment since the story broke Wednesday. Gmelich and Clement were prominent in making the decision to fire Logan, along with the board of trustees, which approved the move. Clement denied that the school has its sights set up on hiring Regis football coach Mark Nolan.

“We’ve had no conversations with anyone about Mark Nolan,” Clement said.

The school hopes to have a new coach hired by the end of February and Clement said it already has received inquiries.

“We recognize this position is extraordinarily important,” he said. “The football coach is one you have to have here.”

Of the new emphasis on hiring coaches who are full-time faculty members, Clement added that the school is encouraging all faculty that has had experience as competitors in athletics to at least volunteer as assistants.

Sources indicated Thursday that Cherry Creek and Denver East would be open to discussions about landing Logan, who starred at Wheat Ridge High School and the University of Colorado. He also played in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns and the Broncos.

Early Thursday students held a brief protest in support of Logan, chanting and waving signs in the school’s parking lot. Students also walked out of classes, and some wore jeans as a symbolic breaking of Mullen’s dress code. As the day wore on, the anger quieted — but it was replaced with a question: Why? Not everyone was buying the explanation that Mullen wanted Logan to be at the school full time, especially his players.

“They don’t have a reason,” said Guy Johnson, a senior wide receiver. “I read their statement, and they didn’t give a good reason.”

Gmelich and Clement were hired in the past year, but Johnson said the feeling among players is that “they’ve been planning this for a long time.”

The students were never addressed Thursday. Logan met with his team Wednesday to inform them of his dismissal.

“They’re not going to tell us nothing,” Johnson said. “It’s not our school. It’s their school now.”

In another matter, former Mustangs boys basketball coach Porter Cutrell, now in New Mexico, received the go-ahead to pursue his federal lawsuit against the school. Cutrell claims the school told the staff not to use its health insurance in order to save money, but he did use his insurance to have a torn rotator cuff repaired. As a result, Cutrell said, Mullen fired him.

WASHINGTON — Thirty games into the 82-game NHL season, and nearly six weeks after the Matt Duchene trade, Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic discussed the state of his team before Tuesday’s 5-2 loss at the Washington Capitals.